Wen to 'shorten Japan trip over sex slave furore'

TOKYO - CHINESE Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan has been shortened in response to Tokyo saying there was no proof that women who worked in wartime brothels were coerced, the Yonhap news agency said yesterday.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked outrage overseas when he said earlier this month there was no evidence that Japan's government or army had forced women, many of them Korean, to serve Japanese soldiers in the brothels.

Mr Abe has made a priority of repairing bilateral ties with China, and he visited China for a summit soon after taking office last year.

No dates have been officially announced for Mr Wen's trip, the first such visit since 2000, but Japanese media have said he may arrive on April 11.

A Chinese source quoted by Yonhap in Beijing said the visit had been shortened to three days from five in response to Mr Abe's comments.

According to the Jiji news agency, Mr Wen will meet Mr Abe on April 11 and give a speech to Parliament on April 12, becoming the first Chinese leader to do so.

Slashed from the agenda was a planned TV appearance during which Mr Wen would have direct dialogue with Japanese citizens, as his predecessor Zhu Rongji did in 2000, Jiji reported.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Mr Wen's trip was still being planned and he did not know the details.

Mr Abe has sought to dampen the furore caused by his remarks. He said the apology made by Japanese leaders in 1993 still stood, and expressed sympathy for the suffering of the 'comfort women', as they are known in Japan.

But on Friday, Mr Abe said a 14-year-old government study had found no evidence that the government or military had kidnapped women to serve in the brothels.

South Korea criticised the statement, which a South Korean Foreign Ministry official termed 'regrettable'.

REUTERS